Eric Johnson: Would mandatory national service benefit our youth?

Published: 11 June 2012 10:19 PM

Updated: 11 June 2012 10:19 PM

I recently returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank as part of a delegation sponsored by the American Council of Young Political Leaders, a bipartisan nonprofit organization internationally recognized for introducing young rising political and policy leaders to international affairs, public diplomacy and each other.

During my 10 days in Israel and the West Bank, I met with people ranging from the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, to members of the Knesset, as well as with leaders from the faith, business, academic and nonprofit communities. I was able to candidly discuss with them the prospect for peace between Israel and its neighbors.

I was also able to see many things that I previously had only read about: the holy sites of the Old City in Jerusalem; the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Rawabi (the largest private-sector project ever carried out in the West Bank); Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum; even the inside of the PLO headquarters.

Something I saw on the Israeli side really struck me: the Israel Defense Forces, Israel’s combined army, navy and air force.

What I found striking about the IDF was the fact that most of its members were so young. Most of the members I saw, both men and women, looked as if they had just been plucked off McKinney Avenue (oversized Prada sunglasses and all), put in a uniform and given a weapon. Seeing these young IDF members, most of whom were fulfilling their legal obligation as Israeli citizens to dedicate the first two or three years of their adult lives to serving their country, made me wonder: Could the U.S. benefit from some type of national service requirement?

I realize that Israel has very different national security concerns than the U.S., is a much smaller country and has a very different history — all factors that make conscription into the military at age 18 a more viable idea in Israel than here. But what if we did not limit our national service requirement to military service but expanded it to include other areas where our country sorely needs help: tutoring and mentoring in struggling rural or urban public schools or working for nonprofits, governmental entities or local police and fire departments?

I can even envision young Americans playing a role in improving our diplomatic relations around the world by working in our foreign service, making valuable connections with their young counterparts in various countries, learning a foreign language, and gaining a nuanced understanding of other cultures, all while promoting U.S. foreign policy interests abroad.

Of course, young Americans themselves would also benefit from such national service. In Israel, most of the conscripted IDF members do not go on to careers in the military but reintegrate into Israeli society by attending college or entering the private sector with enhanced skills, more maturity and a deeper appreciation for their Israeli citizenship. I have no reason to believe that young Americans, particularly those whose lives and career paths after high school are at best unclear, would not enjoy similar benefits.

The technical aspects of a national service requirement for this country would need to be the product of an inclusive, national conversation on the topic and careful consideration, including issues such as who should be exempted or barred from national service and under what circumstances. Israel also has had to grapple with secondary considerations such as whether private businesses should be allowed to reward, through preferential hiring, those who have completed their national service requirement. Perhaps those debates would be even more difficult here because of our country’s considerably larger population and greater ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.

Despite these significant challenges to implementing a national service requirement, I believe it is an idea worth exploring and that, as is the case in Israel, it could contribute to furthering our nation’s and our young people’s interests.

Eric Johnson is a member of the Texas House of Representatives who represents District 100, which includes parts of Dallas and Mesquite. He can be reached at eric@sandlerfirm.com.

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